St. Thomas here we come!

Up before the crack of dawn this morning to pick up the filght from FWA to ATL. Rain awaited us in Atlanta and servere overcast skies. I had to pay $7.95 to get access to the net but I thought it was free here in Atlanta. Well, anyway, you get 24 hours of access for this price. We have two hours to kill before the flight DL320 at 1213. The skies are a sunny 80 degrees down there now (I just checked) and the remainder of the week is supposed to be a 20 to 50% chance of rain. I guess this means a front is coming. Hopefully, this will allow us to do all the things we wanted to do.
-Sail to St. Johns
-Geocache St. Thomas and maybe one in St. Johns
-Snorkel the places Ann & Lee said to go
-Relax

SAM refused to take any sun tan lotion and I took SPF50 so I will come back the same color I left – as ever. This sort of reminds me of the old days when I used to travel to the Far East. This means we have only warm weather clothes. Ok, I am going to save this now – bye…

Monday, Monday

I arrived in GR last night to be prepared for the training by 3M today. Earl Hoekman of 3M took me to dinner and that was good. We went to Smokey Bones – I had Brisket Plate for $9.99. Fortunately, SAM found a coupon and the per plate price was reduced to $7.99. Sweet.

The day went fast and the training was good. Thanks Earl!

GR & dinner

Arrived in GR just a few minutes ago. I am going to have dinner with Earl of 3M tonight. I want to go over a few items for tomorrows training sessions.

I set up my buss strip and plugged in the HoMedics sound machine and the cell charger, fired up the computer and am writing this article. If there is anything worthwhile or I have time when we get done eating I’ll write again. See ya.

BTW – The place I’ll be staying at in St. Thomas will have Internet so I am taking the computer.

Snow & Sun – What a beautiful day

What a beautiful day this is. Last night we received a dusting of light fluffy snow totaling about 1/2″. This must have happened after I went to bed because it was only flurries before that. We rented a DVD and watch one of the Narnia adventures. The fireplace was burning brightly and we enjoyed the movie, the heat and dancing shadows of the fire. This is what life is all about.

The temperature was 15.6 degrees F this morning and was windless and crisp. I got up and went to the doughnut shop and then dropped off the DVD. The usual crowd was at Tom’s. We started off discussing patents and Bill said they were about $10 grand ( he just spent that much on his latest patent). Bill & I have an idea that relates to security devices and my ITS field. For me it is relatively low tech but we could make a million if only ,,,,, Well, I am sure you know how that goes. That was about all the farther we got this AM since I ducked out about 0900 – the smoke bothers my eyes lately and I do not hang around quite as long as I used to.

When I got back to the homestead I fired up the snow blower and cleaned the drive. After that I hand shoveled the snow in hopes that the sun would subliminate the snow off the drive. We will see if that works i an hour or two.

Yesterday VM2 & I went out geocaching down around US33/Albion area. We found four of the caches and walked about 1 1/2 miles in the process. One was a simple cemetary ISQ find and another we expected to be a good one turned out to be a flop. In the process of finding the “flop” VM2 fell down on cinderblocks and scraped up the legs – that will be a big bruise. The last two and best ones were in a nice ACRES area and very close together. Of course, we took the wrong trail to get to them in a expedicious manner but we found them and signed the log and took the trinkets we wanted in trade for some items we have had for a while.

Friday night after work I went out to our “Fish Creek Trail” cache to see if it was still ther (no one has found it since last fall). It was there so we exposed it a bit more so people could find it easier. Sure enough DinoDuo found it on the second try. Once you know where it is, seeing it is always easier. Anyway, they took one of the TB’s in the ammo can we stored the final stage logbook and trading items.

The afternoon!

When I woke up from the nap I told SAM that we would go to Gander Mountain in Coldwater to return the vests that I had bought on sale in Grand Rapids. I had a sneaky agenda – Geocaching. I printed two caches and off we went. The first was west of Kinderhook and the second south of Bronson – I found them both since SAM said NO to getting out in the snow – I said WIMP! On to Coldwater we had a long look inside GM and bought $30 more clothes than the original purchase. I also looked at spinning rods and decided that I will buy one this spring and get a fishing license so I can fish while in the kayak.

On the way back home we stopped to get a video – Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. We are making 5 way chile (like Steak n Shake) for dinner. That is SAM is making it while I write this ditty. Got to go as it is still snowing and getting dark – the promise is 4-6″ tonight.

The Morning!

I woke up about 0630 but lounged around until 0730 or so and headed to Tom’s Doughnut Shop. Bill was there and so was Dick. We had a small civil chat about “The Toll Road” and the fact that the paper had published an article about how the Republican’s down in Indy ( and that means our local rep ) do not appear to know to much what they are voting for and it appears to be illegal. There is a cadre of Reganites that carry on the same dogma and I guess one may be our own Gov. It is a done deal so why get upset. I guess I can always move to Florida where the taxes are more favorable. So much for politics.

By the time I got back home it was snowing and I had to take the truck down for an oil change at Toon-Up Automotive. SAM picked me up and we went to the orchard across from SAM’s old place to get some Goldrush apples – we bought 2.5 pecks – so they would last for a while. Goldrush apples are a very late apple that has a mottled skin and they are exceptionally crisp with a very sweet taste at the start and gets progressively more tart. What an apple – it was love at first bite. I ate two on the way back home.

It was time for lunch and a short nap.

La Nina

The cold start to winter that lasted 60 days has tapered off for the last month or more. I guess this is due to La Nina. At least that is what I heard today. I believe it since the weather has been unseasonally warm. Today was 45 with rain all day. This was ok since I was working in the home office today. I am productive here and more relaxed so it was a good deal.

This weekend is the Superbowl in Detroit. A lot of what I do relates to Intelligent Transportation Systems. You can get an idea if you go to www.itsmichigan.org.